Right now, my Dell Inspiron 5547 laptop can run SE at low settings. Specs are 8 gigs of ram, Intel HD 4400, and Intel i5-4210U 1.7/~2.4 GHz processor (Quad core), on Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1. Would it be possible to add a Nvidia card to it for hybrid graphics, no less than the 1gb recommended for vram, to better support SE?

My question is whether SE would Profit from a dual gpu Card like a GTX690 as compared to a single GPU Card such as a GTX970 or similar. I ask specifically for These two Cards since I found them at a good Price.

Single GPU is better. SE supports SLI, but performance in SLI mode is lower than in single-GPU mode for some reason. Acheiving benefit from SLI is a tricky programming task.

Quotecubusmedusa ()

So you mean 4GB of VRAM yields more than 2GPUs with 2GB each in this use-case Scenario?

This is common misconception. VRAM of two GPUs is not added in SLI, it worked as a mirror. GPUs are works independently, simply rendering their own fraction of the frame. So they must have the same textures and models in their memory.

This is common misconception. VRAM of two GPUs is not added in SLI, it worked as a mirror. GPUs are works independently, simply rendering their own fraction of the frame. So they must have the same textures and models in their memory.

Thanks for your reply. Ok, good to know for sure that SLI is implemented. The "as a mirror"-Thing was known to me. My former question was aiming at total VRAM usage of SE which was unknown to me back then. My thoughts were - say SE could live with less than 2GB then dual-GPU Profit would be conceivable. In the meantime I purchased a GTX 970 and saw that SE is a VRAM-Hog (if high Details are wanted) so question is answered.

QuoteSpaceEngineer ()

SE supports SLI, but performance in SLI mode is lower than in single-GPU mode for some reason.

ok, thats bad. Pitty that SLI implementation is so difficult. Thinking about VR, i reckon buying a second Card "for the second Display - so to say" would be more feasible for most users than having to buy a new and expensive single GPU that can bear VR...

Thinking about VR, i reckon buying a second Card "for the second Display - so to say" would be more feasible for most users than having to buy a new and expensive single GPU that can bear VR...

If you enable SLI, displays connected to secondary GPU will be disabled. SLI work only for a single display and only in fullscreen. Driver even can't enable or disable it automatically - you have to do this manually each time you want to play game on a primary display or enable back secondary displays. This is true at least for GTX 780.

If you enable SLI, displays connected to secondary GPU will be disabled

I think there was a misunderstanding. I meant - to drive the two VR Displays with reasonable framerate and Detail you would Need SLI (hence a second Card) or a better single GPU. I assume that buying a second Card would be more feasible for most People as compared to swapping out the old one and buy an expensive new one instead. But I may be wrong. I did not mean to connect Monitor 1 to Card 1 and Monitor 2 to Card 2.

Hi, I'm new here. I just want to ask about VGA card. I'll buy my next VGA upgrade soon, and I need a little bit of advice to choose between 3 different card. Which of these three card that I need to get in order to run the latest SE as optimal as possible:

GIGABYTE XTREME GAMING GTX950 2GDDR5 - GV-N950XTREME-2GD the cheapest of them all. is it enough to run the latest SpaceEngine smoothly?

ASUS STRIX-GTX960 2GB GDDR5 - a high quality card, but is it good enough ?

ASUS TURBO-GTX960-OC 4GB GDDR5 - with 4GB VRAM and GTX960 chip. will 2GB differences matter much to run SE?

I just can't afford the legendary GTX970 or 980 In my country the 970 sells around $500-$700 and 970 at $1000 - $1200! Which is crazily overpriced, considering I could get the same card in Amazon with half the price. But, since buying online from abroad is not an option for me, so yeah 960 is my most logical choice.

After some more research in this forum and elsewhere I decided to get 960 2GB with the highest clock possible. The ASUS TURBO 4GB isn't worth buying since their cooling solution runs pretty hot under load. Anyway, Thank you!